Awesome Vibe Coding Guide

Become a 10x Vibe Coder with this awesome guide to vibe coding. This repository compiles best practices, and tips for efficient and controlled AI-assisted coding, drawing from experiences with tools like Cursor. Vibe coding emphasizes a intuitive flow between human developers and AI, ensuring productivity without losing control.

Whether you're using Cursor, windsurf, lovable or other AI tools, these guidelines help you maintain clarity, avoid common pitfalls, and build high-quality code iteratively.

What is Vibe Coding?

Vibe coding is a mindset for AI assisted development where you "vibe" with the AI; leveraging its strengths while guiding it with clear instructions and iterative refinements. It's about creating a smooth workflow that feels natural, reduces errors, and increases your coding speed.

Key principles:

• Clarity first: Always provide detailed, structured prompts to the AI.
• Iterative control: Break tasks into small steps and review outputs.
• Human oversight: AI suggests; you decide and refine.

Best Practices for Vibe Coding

1. Setup and Planning

• Start from a Template:

  • Begin your project by cloning a template from GitHub or another source to provide a solid foundation.
  • e.g. On Cursor, you can use the Start from Repo feature.

• Create a Comprehensive Plan:

  • Use an AI assistant like Claude or ChatGPT to create a detailed plan in markdown.
  • Ask it clarifying questions and have it critique its own plan, then regenerate until it's solid.
  • This plan becomes your instruction manual for the coding process. Save this plan in plan.md (or Claude.md if you run /init in Cursor) so the AI can reference it anytime.

• Secure Your Secrets:

  • Always store API keys, tokens, and other sensitive data in environment files (.env).
  • Never hard-code them directly into your source code.
  • Add .env* and /secrets to .gitignore.

2. Assisted Coding and Prompting

• Use Agent Mode:

  • Turn on Agent mode to perform file-wide edits, generate tests, manage files, and even run CLI commands directly from the terminal through natural language commands.

• Prompt with Clarity:

  • Be specific in your requests. For example, instead of fix the sidebar, use Update Sidebar to include X behavior under Y condition.
  • Provide sample inputs, expected outputs, and edge cases to get the best results.
  • If you're making a big change like major refactoring or adding complex features. Encourage deeper thinking by using phrases such as Think hard, Think deep, Think longer.
  • Document effective prompts, keep a record of prompts that work best and reuse them often.

• Keep Chats Focused:

  • Create a new, clean chat for each distinct task.
  • This prevents the AI's context from getting confused or hallucinating.

• Reset Context When Needed:

  • If the AI starts getting confused, renaming files incorrectly, or sharing irrelevant errors, don't hesitate to start fresh with a New chat.
  • Resetting the context cleans the AI's state and often resolves the issue.

3. Testing and Debugging

• Run and Test Frequently:

  • Use local servers to run and test your app.
  • Test often to catch issues as soon as they appear.

• Let the AI Fix Errors:

  • When you encounter an error, copy the exact error message from your console and paste it into the AI agent.
  • If the first fix doesn't work, explain the outcome and try again.
  • The AI is often capable of resolving it.

• Iterate and Refine:

  • Embrace rapid iteration.
  • Don't worry about perfect designs initially.
  • Improve them step by step.

4. Version Control and Deployment

• Commit Early and Often:

  • Push your progress to GitHub regularly.
  • This protects your work and tracks your project's history.
  • You can also ask the agent to handle commits for you.

• Deploy Early:

  • Use platforms like Vercel to deploy your app early and catch deployment issues.

Important Note

When you use AI generated code, also focus on learning, not just running. Keep these points in mind:

• Learn on the go.
• Don’t just paste in code that works.
• Pause and ask yourself why it does what it does.
• If you’re unsure, ask AI to explain how it works.

Keep thinking, be curious, and use AI to increase your coding speed and deepen your knowledge.

Top 10 Vibe Coding Tools

1. Cursor
2. Claude Code
3. Copilot
4. Replit
5. Windsurf
6. Gemini CLI
7. Lovable
8. Bolt
9. v0
10. Tempo Labs

Contributing

We welcome contributions from the community! If you have a vibe coding best practice, tip, or improvement to suggest:

Please include changes in the relevant folders.

• Setup and Planning
• Coding and prompting
• Testing and Debugging
• Version and Deployment

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch: git checkout -b feature/AmazingBestPractice
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add some AmazingBestPractice'
4. Push to the branch: git push origin feature/AmazingBestPractice
5. Open a pull request

Thank you for helping us make vibe coding guide awesome!

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License

This project is licensed under MIT License.

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